Last Night

Mar 31, 2006

It is perhaps a fitting last vegan dinner before my experiment starts: I am at an electro-acoustic music conference in Oregon. As I am quite used to with this sort of thing, the caterers to the conference don't understand veganism - I was offered a choice of "vegetarian", "fish", or "meat". I opted for the vegetarian, which consisted of cheese-stuffed portabella mushrooms. So I skipped the main course, eating instead the sides of broccolini, wild rice, salad and olive bread (not at all a bad spread for this sort of thing).

My neighbor at the dinner, another student in my department, asked me why I wouldn't just eat the stuffed mushroom. After all, I had told her of my plans to go non-vegan for a month, starting tomorrow... why not just eat it anyway? Out of her concern, she and a couple others nearby offered me parts of their portions of broccolini; a charity I didn't want to need, but accepted.

Vegans are often asked why they don't just eat animal products that are already there, and that will just be thrown away otherwise. Indeed, a movement has grown around avoiding just this principle - the freegans. Why vegans choose to abstain even from freely available animal products lacks a simple answer.

For myself, it has often been a matter of principle: I don't eat animal products, so I won't eat animal products, it is that simple. It is very easy to lay down a strict rule you won't cross, and to stick by it. It is much more difficult to take the more subtle tack that you will only eat animal products in certain circumstances. Humans are fickle, and can often be persuaded by emotional weakness, hunger, etc. - and having a strict rule makes it much easier to survive these cases. Also, there is something of self-martyrdom to be had by going (slightly) hungry because the current circumstance won't support veganism. You call attention to yourself and to the person feeding you, and can thus use the opportunity to make a statement.

Of course, this is something which can just as easily frustrate your friends as the anonymous third parties. The most difficult aspect of veganism to me has been dealing with friends, relatives and friendly acquaintances who are trying to feed me. By asserting your veganism on them, you make yourself a special case that needs special treatment. As much as I have tried to avoid preaching or moralizing to anyone about veganism, by merely asserting the principle, you still make a statement - one which might place you, and veganism, in ill favor in the eyes of someone who is merely trying to be nice to you by feeding you. It is infinitely easier when it is anonymous... but does that make it any better?